Q & A With a Vampire
by Lisa Telramor
Summary: Edogawa Conan and Kuroba Kaito get to the bottom of what vampire mythos apply to Saguru. Sequel to A Flavor Without Name Mentions of past Saguru/Conan. Saguru is still a vampire


_AN: Sequel to A Flavor W/O Name. Pretty much wanted to have fun with the universe and vampire mythos for this one._

Saguru sat face to face with Edogawa Conan, two feet separating them. While ordinarily that would have been too close, Saguru was fortunate enough that Kuroba had deigned to act as a buffer. Said buffer yawned from the armchair next to the carpet they sat on. Lounging in a manner the chair wasn't made to support, Kuroba's hand dangled next to Saguru's thigh, close enough that he could grab Saguru if it looked like he was losing control.

"Silver," Edogawa said.

"A mild allergy," Saguru said.

"Holy objects?"

"Ineffective."

"Running water?"

"Clearly ineffective." Saguru lifted an eyebrow. "I have no idea how the modern vampire would function if that were applicable considering the sheer amount of pipe systems that are effectively running water."

Edogawa nodded, ticking off another part of his mental list. "Sunlight is no… You've eaten garlic—which still baffles me how you eat human food but need blood."

"He said blood was fuel and food was like candy to me once," Kuroba offered. He hadn't been interested in the cross referencing vampire lore against reality the way Edogawa had, but he was listening no matter how bored he outwardly appeared.

"It lacks the nutrients needed, but it is not unpleasant to consume," Saguru said.

"Right." Edogawa tapped his knee. "Needing to be invited into places."

"Unnecessary."

"Arithmomania?"

"Needing to count things? No. I have Obsessive Compulsive tendencies, but as I experienced those before I was turned, I doubt that they have any relevance to your list of all that is vampiric." As far as such things went, his experience with OCD was mild and usually ignorable. It manifested in how he kept his appearance and the exacting tidiness of his room and belongings, and that was that.

"Staking?"

Saguru rolled his eyes. "Lethal. But if I staked you through the heart, you would also die." Now Saguru wasn't sure whether or not his corpse would turn to ash, but death via stake was not the best way of determining if someone was a vampire or not. Neither were any other lethal method. "That also goes for decapitation, drowning, and death by fire. Anything that would kill a human being is likely to kill me."

Edogawa nodded thoughtfully. He shifted to re-cross his legs more comfortably. Saguru noted that Edogawa needed new socks; the toes were almost worn through. "Werewolf blood?"

"Non-lethal, potentially beneficial actually depending on the species of werewolf." The werewolf versus vampire mythos was frankly ridiculous. Most supernaturals coexisted with each other and among humans.

"There's more than one species of werewolf?" Kuroba asked. He stopped pretending to look bored, shifting around in the chair with uncomfortable looking contortions until he was facing them both.

"There are many. There is more than one sort of vampire as well, technically," Saguru said. "Vampirism and lycanthropy are closer to viral infections than anything else, though they exist as inborn genetic traits as well. I am an infected vampire, so any hypothetical progeny I have would be human where a genetic vampire would have vampire children."

"Weird." Kuroba wrinkled his nose. Edogawa looked fascinated and was muttering something about asking a friend some hypothetical questions. "So some vampires do have weaknesses that you don't then?"

"Yes. Born vampires do tend to have issues with sunlight. I have never met any, however, so cannot say what mythos applies to them in particular." Saguru had never felt the desire to search out other vampires. When he was first changed he had had the man who changed him to ask questions to. After a while, life had continued, on a different direction than anticipated, but continued never the less.

"Speaking of viruses, do you get sick?" Edogawa asked.

"Not exactly?" Saguru frowned, tapping fingers against his knee. He stopped when he realized his hand was getting a bit too close to where Kuroba's dangled. "I do not get viruses, but blood from humans with certain diseases can make me physically ill or have other detrimental effects until that blood is out of my system. It can feel like food poisoning or like the flu depending on what sort of contagion I'm dealing with."

"Lucky." Edogawa sighed. "The number of times I've gotten colds with wildly out of control fevers, I'd take not getting every virus that comes around."

"Enough about weaknesses," Kuroba cut in, "I want to know what he can do, not what can't affect him."

"Hoping to know how to avoid me if I ever choose to use my abilities against you?" Saguru asked, feeling amused.

Kuroba grinned unrepentantly. "Of course. I have to know what I'm dealing with." He spread a hand and tapped Saguru's knee where Saguru had been tapping moments before. "So. Enhancements. You've got smell and speed. What else?"

"Some enhanced strength, although not outside the realm of what a human body is naturally capable of. Healing is only slightly faster than the average human being."

"Hence why you can die by anything that would kill a human."

"Yes."

"Shape shifting?" Edogawa asked.

"No. I've never met a vampire who could shape shift, though I have met shifters." And Kuroba had shape shifter blood. How much that lineage boosted his disguise skills, Saguru would never know.

"Flight?"

"No."

"That's a pity," Kuroba chuckled. "It would look interesting to watch you fly after Kid at a heist."

"Interesting." If by interesting you meant ridiculous, then yes, it would be interesting. Saguru would keep his feet firmly on the ground thank you very much.

"Telekinesis." Edogawa said.

"No."

"Pyrokinesis."

"No."

"Psychic abilities."

"Limited to mild hypnotism and pheromone control. I am not a mind reader nor can I completely control a person's mind. Severely impair judgment and reaction ability, perhaps lead people to do things they would never consciously choose to do, but theoretically it would be possible to break free of them if someone had a strong enough sense of self." Saguru shrugged. Most criminals didn't have the sense of identity or force of will to put up even a fraction of resistance let alone rebel.

"You don't age," Edogawa muttered under his breath. "I'm pretty much tapped on vampire mythos," he admitted after a moment.

"Walk on walls?" Kuroba took up the thread of conversation.

"No."

"Control animals?"

"No. Though that could be useful. It could be possible with hypnotism and if the pheromones were compatible?" Saguru shrugged again. "I will admit to never trying. I have never been in a situation where I would want to try and control an animal although I have scared animals away before."

"I'll file that under maybe." Kuroba nodded and started drumming his fingers on Saguru's knee again in a distracting 3-4-2 pattern. "Control elements?"

"No."

"Can your blood heal?"

"No." Saguru wondered where Kuroba was getting these ideas from because it wasn't traditional vampire mythos.

"Teleport or summon souls."

"No." Summon souls? Really? Had vampires become some sort of necromancer stand in with current popular culture?

"Empathy?"

"No more than scent allows."

"Put people to sleep?"

"Via hypnosis, yes."

"Am I missing anything? Because I am out of ideas," Kuroba sighed.

Saguru shifted an inch to the right to escape Kuroba's tapping. From the narrow-eyed assessing look it got him from the thief that was probably a bad idea, or even admitting a chink in his armor. He was certain that within the hour Kuroba would come up with small, irritating and seemingly casual ways to touch him that would have Saguru wanting to strangle him. He turned his focus on Edogawa in the futile hope that if he ignored Kuroba long enough, it would make him abandon whatever scheme he was thinking up. "Something on your mind?"

Edogawa's face was screwed into a deep, thinking frown. Arms crossed the same right over left as his legs, he seemed to be burning a hole into the floor two centimeters to Saguru's right. "It bothers me," he said abruptly.

"What bothers you?"

"You. As a vampire." Before Saguru could even begin to feel offended—it wasn't terribly offensive as far as such things went, more balling than anything—Edogawa held a hand up, stalling out any possible responses as he worked through his thought out loud. "There are too many positive factors to vampirism from what you're saying and not enough drawback to make things make sense. If being a vampire has so many perks, why aren't there more of you? I take it there's more to spreading vampirism than just biting someone, but you'd think a lot of people would want to be vampires just to live longer lives if nothing else."

Saguru shifted uncomfortable as two sets of eyes that saw too much pinned him with a desire to understand. Kuroba and Edogawa were far too similar in some ways even as they could not be further from each other in others. Kuroba shifted so his arms were crossed under his chin as he continued to use the chair improperly and Edogawa had his chin propped on one fist. He straightened his shirt cuffs and cleared his throat. "It is not quite that simple," Saguru mumbled. "Yes, there is the advantage of longer life and enhanced abilities." He fiddled with his shirt cuff. "For some it would be an ideal existence, provided they could upkeep it."

"Upkeep?" Kuroba asked. "Like feeding?"

"Yes." Saguru sighed. "There are risks to becoming a vampire in the first place. Not everyone survives the process, which in part deters people from seeking that life. Then there is the very real risk of losing yourself to bloodlust when you first change."

"Is that why you were so worried about how you reacted to me?" Edogawa asked.

A sharp laugh brought Saguru Edogawa's scent on the inhale which still prickled his instincts even with Kuroba as a buffer. Exposure to it was slowly dulling the extreme reaction it brought, but it still scared him when he let himself dwell on it just how much both Edogawa and Kuroba could tug on his instincts and break down his rigid control. "More or less," Saguru said. "But when one is first turned, if you lose yourself to bloodlust, you might not regain your mind. There is not much point in a long life if your mind holds little more than a feral creature ruled by instinct. And feral vampires tend to have short lives as their lack of care for their prey leads to them being hunted down."

"Oh." Edogawa was focused inward again, and Saguru wondered if he was considering ethics or simply comparing that sort of scenario to crimes he had seen humans commit. There was a high likelihood that Edogawa had seen almost as much death as Saguru had, and Saguru had a little over a century on him to run across it.

"Right." Then there was the flipside of blood lust. "And if a vampire does not feed regularly, they also face the threat of falling into insanity. It is a very fine line to walk and many do not manage it. To be a successful vampire, one who has a long life and retains his or her sanity, one must have a strong sense of self and a strong mind and will."

"Well that you have plenty of," Kuroba said with a smile that was probably meant to be mocking. His eyes weren't mocking though.

"If it was a risk, why did you choose to become a vampire?" Edogawa asked.

It was a question that always inevitably came up if Saguru discussed vampirism with anyone, and one he had actually got into the details of his personal experience with the shift only twice, once with his aunt, and once with a good friend almost sixty years prior. He gave his attentive listeners a thin smile and a terse, "I did not. Circumstances occurred and becoming a vampire was the result." With a slightly less forced smile he added, "It is not something I am comfortable discussing."

Edogawa's mouth opened but he closed it when Kuroba touched his shoulder.

"That's fine," Kuroba said. "We all have things we'd rather keep secret."

Edogawa looked like he'd been slapped with realization and it was followed by guilt before being ruthlessly smothered. They were all men of secrets and men that enjoyed discovering the secrets of others. Saguru could not fault them for this any more than they could ultimately fault him for being driven to learn more about them.

Silence stretched between them in which Kuroba kept his hand on Edogawa's shoulder.

The relief of Kuroba's presence went beyond words. It did figure that someone so good at riling people up would be able to redirect conversations to avoid negative reactions. Saguru let himself relax and push memories of the past away. Kuroba and Edogawa's scents were calming rather than stimulating when mixed. He breathed them in and held it, letting it curl through him. Saguru closed his eyes and breathed, focusing on where their scents merged rather than their individual scents until he was calmer than he had been when they started the question and answer session.

"Well." Saguru opened his eyes. Edogawa and Kuroba were watching him with similar expressions that were too complex to parse. "Were there any other questions?"

"I think that's enough for one day," Edogawa said.

"Very well. Kuroba?"

Kuroba slid boneless to the patch of floor in front of the armchair, filling a bit too much of Saguru's personal space before he maneuvered himself upright. "This was Edogawa's investigative session. If he's done, I'm done."

Saguru snorted. As if Kuroba hadn't been interested. "Then we might as well call it a day, unless either of you would prefer to join me for a meal?"

"Why Hakuba, what kind of meal do you mean?" Kuroba teased with the edge of Kid's flirtatious air.

"A human meal," Saguru clarified. He didn't rise to Kuroba's bait, though Edogawa's face had turned an interesting shade of red. "Although if you are offering something more, then by all means, we can arrange that some other time."

Kuroba laughed. "Nah, I'm not one for bloodletting. Though if you need me for a buffer again anytime, let me know."

"Of course." Saguru raised an eyebrow at Edogawa who was getting even redder. He smelled very…interested in the topic. It left Saguru with a proprietary satisfaction to know that his single time feeding from Edogawa had left such a deep impression. He stood and dusted the creases from his slacks. "Meal?"

"I have somewhere to be," Kuroba said. "Maybe next time."

"I have to be back before…" Edogawa checked his watch. "Six, so in a half hour. Thank you for answering my questions though."

"Anytime, Edogawa. If you require more details on anything in the packet of information I gave you or have questions in general, I would be glad to answer them." Saguru allowed himself the small breach of the space they had rigidly kept between them by offering Edogawa a hand. Edogawa took it without hesitation.

After Saguru had escorted them to the door, Saguru bypassed the dining room in favor of his bedroom.

Slowly but surely, it was becoming his own. The four poster bed, the ornate mirror over his dresser. The neat order of his desk that had fountain pens for nostalgia's sake alongside more modern writing utensils. A framed drawing done by a dear friend in his second identity's life, a portrait of his aunt where she looked too stern due to having to hold still for too long. Trinkets and books cluttering his bookshelf in an order that was significant only to him, arranged in the order of acquisition and sentimental value.

He stopped in front of one of the first books on the shelf and ran a finger down its cracking leather spine. It was simply titled "Human Anatomy," and the spine had cracked at some point of its lifespan though Saguru could not pinpoint which of the many times he had pulled the book from a shelf to leaf through it had been the one time too many. It had been second hand to begin with and represented another place and time that he could not and had no desire to return to by this point.

Saguru left the shelf alone.

Perhaps he would be willing to tell Kuroba or Edogawa his story one day and add them to the list of trusted few. Perhaps not.

There was all the time in the world for secrets to come to light and all the better if trust brought them there.


End file.
